Dollar General Q1 comp sales +3.8% “Same-store sales in the first quarter of 2019 included growth in the consumables, seasonal, and home categories, partially offset by declines in the apparel category.”Press release

Dollar Tree Q1 comp sales: Enterprise +2.2% / Dollar Tree +2.5% / Family Dollar +1.9% “In fiscal 2019, as previously announced, we expect to close as many as 390 stores…plans to re-banner approximately 200 Family Dollar stores to the Dollar Tree brand in fiscal 2019…plans to add adult beverage product in approximately 1,000 Family Dollar stores…”Press release

Walmart Canada Unveils New, State-of-the-Art, “Urban Supercentre Concept” via Yahoo Finance. “At the Stockyards Walmart, licensee partnerships include Freshii, the Party Shop, The UPS store, MINISO, Naoki Sushi and a newly renovated McDonald’s…has a dedicated Walmart.ca section, where customers can see and shop for extended aisle products…This area will also be used to host pop-up shops for online vendors.”Read more

…Walmart Canada debuts a new checkout system called “fast lane” that lets customers avoid cashiers and registers by Hayley Peterson at Business Insider. “My Walmart users scan items with their phones as they shop. Once a user is finished shopping, they click “checkout” to receive a barcode. Next, the customer scans the order barcode at one of four scanning stations in the fast lane.”Read more

‘Merch by Amazon’ t-shirt business increasing orders from Disney to Dr. Seuss by Melissa Fares & Sonya Dowsett at Reuters. “The trend is up-ending the traditional licensing model where brands worked with apparel wholesalers to produce garments and get them into stores. The ‘Merch by Amazon’ on-demand printing service, in its third full year of operation, works by printing t-shirts once an order comes in, meaning content creators like video game makers and pay TV channels do not have to commit to a large merchandise inventory upfront.”Read more

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Walmart is catching up to Amazon in the online grocery wars: Citi by Heidi Chung at Yahoo Finance. “Though Walmart is still losing to Amazon in terms of market share, it is the winner when it comes to quality of delivery, according to Citi’s research. Twenty-nine percent of respondents said that Walmart had the best delivery, while 25% selected Amazon.”Read more

Retail’s Top Achievers Recognized at Retail Council of Canada’s 2019 Excellence in Retailing Awards GalaPress release

Abercrombie & Fitch CEO says smaller stores are the future by Lauren Thomas at CNBC. “Abercrombie will do 85 store redesigns in 2019, including some for its Hollister brand, after doing 70 in 2018. This entails the apparel retailer either closing a bigger store in a mall and opening a smaller one nearby, chopping up a bigger store to take up less square footage, or opening up a small-format location in an entirely new market.”Read more

Amazon dumps controversial security firm at Seattle HQ in favor of union-backed contractor by James Thorne at GeekWire. “It’s a huge win,” said Greg Ramirez, director of organizing at SEIU6. “We’re hoping it’s a step in the right direction for Amazon.” The labor organization currently represents around 600 union janitors at Amazon.”Read more

Wegmans says bye to free baby-sitting by Stephen T. Watson at Buffalo News. “…the service, offered for decades, isn’t as popular as it used to be, so the chain will put the former Wkids space in its stores to other uses. Further, they said, Wegmans will encourage families to shop together and focus on programs that parents can do with their kids, such as in-store yoga, cooking classes and movie nights.”Read more

Go inside Galaxy’s Edge — the most immersive ‘land’ in Disney park history by Pam Kragen at The San Diego Union-Tribune. “Even veteran “Star Wars” composer John Williams created an original score that’s piped through hidden speakers throughout the land, which is called Black Spire Outpost, a thousand-year-old village on the planet Batuu at the edge of a distant galaxy.”Tiered subs.